Lore Galore [LA, Merchant]

[Aydi al-Qais]

He looked at her face while she talked so that he wouldn't miss any of the quiet words, his eyes lighting up in recognition of something. "So unless you pierce the veil of mystery, you're left hanging. I understand how it is hard to take direction in such circumstances. I... even know how it is." He didn't elaborate, but his words rang genuine. He indeed knew, and he painfully remembered the circumstances that had forced his father's hand to reveal things to him. Their relations had never been the same since.

But he always kept finding ways to pull himself out of any gloom. "If only you knew a trusted detective to help you crack it." He smirked. "I am not imposing, Sayyeda. But if the options don't present themselves easily, something you just need to make them."

[Soraya al-Menjari]

"Ah, but remember Si, you are not just a trusted detective, but a friend. And if there would be any danger in this... Not that I don't already know you are okay handling danger, but this doesn't feel like a threat like kidnapping, just a daughter curious to her family's secrets. I am not sure I would be okay with putting you in potential harms way; I hear my father's bodyguards like to fold trespassers into pretzel or bagel-like shapes."

It was half joking... but half genuine. Soraya liked Aydi and did not want to risk her newfound friendship for him to be risked without cause.

[Aydi al-Qais]

"And what kind of a friend would I be if I weren't ready to take risks for your sake?" He reached for her hand to reassure her that he wasn't too cowed by a perspective of taking shape of a bakery product. "I just want you to know that you're not without options to deal with the cage."

[Jewel]

"Ah young love! Such sweet misery. Always ending in pain and torment and death." For a moment it was almost as if one of their shadows had dared to speak before they realized the tall black shape against a nearby wall was not being cast from any light in the room, "Oh, they'll write 'happily ever after' and end the tale... but no story truly ends until the life does, does it?"

The figure was tall, immensely tall, as much as Aydi stood above Soraya it towered above him at least the same and likely more. Though that was not to say they were massive. Their form was fully cloaked in abaya and veil, black as night and likely costing a near fortune in quantity of cloth if not in quality, but still they seemed slight in frame. As if one had clothed a particularly ambitiously sprouting sapling that strives to touch Shilah herself. Their voice was almost a whisper and shed no light on whatever gender might be hidden under their garment of choice.

The fact that much seemed sorted in rarity by height now made much more sense. If this was the proprietor then no shelf was out of easy reach while any thief of opportunity would be limited to the more common fare below.

[Soraya al-Menjari]

She nodded and gave a smile in return, "I will remember, and I..."

Soraya was cut off by quite the alarming figure and the princess, forgetting herself, half hid herself behind Aydi almost immediately. Though she tried to be at least a little polite, "Oh! Ummm, good day, Si. You... you startled me a bit there."

[Aydi al-Qais]

Aydi was more than willing to lend his silhouette to Soraya as a partial cover, also because the physical contact that came with it sent shivers down his spine. Still, he controlled the smile as he spoke out.

"I see you have a taste for dramatising stories, Sidi. Is it reflected in your collection?"

[Jewel]

A movement of the head and veil that is likely a nod, "Oh, of course! Star-crossed lovers. Angry families. Bitter rivals. Dark curses. All the classics of doomed love."

[Aydi al-Qais]

"And how about something palatable for children, and involving Rokugan?"

[Jewel]

"Rokugan... rare." Long, gloved fingers stroke a veiled chin before reaching out, without looking, to a nearby upper shelf and withdrawing a scroll, "This one, yes, a tale of a demon hag that steals the form of others. Snatching away children to their deaths... if they are lucky."

[Aydi al-Qais]

Aydi looked over his shoulder to Soraya, unsure if this was something she was looking for. The very premise gave him creeps.